Office Visit: Champions in every sense

While watching the Winter Olympics in Sochi, I revisited my experience as a USA team physician at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. From the moment I arrived, I saw that the Australian people were true sportsmen. They mobbed our athletes for autographs even though most were unknowns, cheered gold-medal winners and last-place finishers in every race, and supported every Australian athlete, regardless the sport. Schoolchildren were bused by the thousands from all over Australia to see events.

As viewers, we see intriguing segments on Olympic athletes to inspire us with their incredible stories. At the Paralympic Games, every athlete has an incredible story. Most stories are based on survival, or choosing life over death. A young female swimmer who lost most of her extremities from sepsis was competing while a candidate for a kidney transplant. Another young swimmer was partially blind and had just had her appendix removed. She began to experience more abdominal pain at the games, and gallstones were discovered. She had surgery and competed a week after sutures were removed.

The phrase the blind leading the blind is a way of life at the Paralympics. Partially blind athletes push wheelchair athletes while totally blind athletes hold on to their shoulders. Sports like wheelchair tennis were mesmerizing. Two bounces on the court instead of one were fascinating to watch as male and female athletes whizzed cross-court to make plays. Even fun excursions like an Australian Harbor Cruise presented challenges for athletes. If you can imagine, no ramps or elevators to bathrooms on an upper deck equated to athletes being carried by the medical staff.

After the athletes had flown out, the medical staff had a free day in Sydney. From the moment I left the village, I felt different. After a short time, I realized it was not because my responsibilities were over, but rather that I was moving around like an able-bodied individual. For a month, the medical staff had adjusted normal movement and moved only as fast as the slowest athlete and security would allow. I will never forget that. I returned to normal life, one Paralympic athletes would never experience. It is one of the many memories and life lessons I learned from the greatest athletes in the world.

David Holden is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and currently serves on the board of directors with McBride Orthopedic Hospital in Oklahoma City.